Module 5 PowerPoints

High Frequency Words, and Fluency PowerPoint
      As a fourth grade teacher, I do not teach high frequency words out of context. However, I constantly remind my students when they are reading or when we are completing spelling activities, to remember their vowel sounds (I catch myself saying a short “a” sounds like apple or short “i” sounds like itch). We use “Words Their Way” for our weekly spelling words. They break up the students’ spelling words based on common patterns that we see. This helps the students learn those patterns and experiment which other words that fall into those categories. Once a week they will sort their weekly words just like the PowerPoint suggests, which I believe is a great additional reinforcement. Although I think it is important for students to know the high frequency words by sight, I also like steps 8 and 9 of word building where the students spell and write the words using the specific patterns. I love the idea of including the high frequency words on our word wall. However, I feel like my one word wall would have to turn into several word walls since I already post their curriculum terminology as well as some new vocabulary. I did like the idea of playing “secret word” where the student gets five clues to guess his/her high frequency words. I feel like there are endless games in which we can engage our students that would expand their high frequency words and in turn help their oral fluency.

Vocabulary Development PowerPoint

      I often see students struggle with using context clues to determine a word’s meaning and I focus on this type of strategy a lot. Although intermediate students are able to decode most words, they sometimes come across an unfamiliar word. I have noticed that some students are capable of deciphering the new word’s meaning because of the context clues that the author provides, yet other students cannot determine the meaning and have to refer to a dictionary. I frequently use teacher prompts like, “Does that sound right?” or “Do we know what that word really means?” or even “Do you see parts of this word that you are familiar with from another word?” while my students and I are reading texts. I use these prompts because I am trying to foster strategies based on the semantic, syntactic, and/or phonics of the sentences. I agree that self-correction is proof of reading for meaning but I also believe that some of my higher readers add miscues that enhance and make sense with the text. I never knew that approximately 50% of the words in a text are high frequency words. After viewing this PowerPoint, I am now wondering if using high frequency words with my students who participate in the ESOL program would benefit their fluency and overall comprehension. Those students currently read along with pre-recorded books online with RAZ Kids. My class is paired up with one my best friend’s second grade class, for book buddies. My fourth graders have prospered from these book buddy sessions because they feel that they are setting an example for those second graders. I have seen many of my students’ confidence levels increase. Both classes look forward to their time with their book buddies because they can see the books their partner is currently reading, talk about their books, or alternate reading. One of the last slides really validated my feelings that I have this year with reading, which is “Fluency can be fostered by the amount of reading students do” (slide 22). Several students tell me that they only read at school because they do not have time at home. This saddens me because a lot of my students need that extra practice outside of school with family members or even by themselves. I wish I could impress on parents how important constant reading (at home and school) is and how it can enhance their student’s fluency and comprehension levels.

 Assessing Vocabulary PowerPoint

      I never thought about words being broken into different tiers based on their usage in our language and everyday lives. However, this does make sense to me. I agree that vocabulary is one of the strongest contributors to comprehension because if a human has to stop and think “What does this word mean?” he/she might lose track of the entire picture in order to focus on the unfamiliar words. I have seen students in my class who have a lower vocabulary, struggle with reading comprehension because they are so worried about decoding and making sense of the new words. This is why I implemented read-alouds that use rich language and constantly hold discussions where all students can interact with the texts that we use in mini-lessons. I liked the idea of using the “everyone gets 5” quiz because I can differentiate the vocabulary words for my students and expand their vocabulary based on their individual needs. However, I have difficulty finding these vocabulary words other than in our curriculum. I have used the vocabulary rating scale in social studies, math, and science when I introduce new terminology and this is also helpful when I plan my lessons. I also liked the idea of the “meaningful uses” of vocabulary questions along with the quick vocabulary-checking activities to gauge a student’s overall understanding of new vocabulary.

Module 4 - PowerPoints

Assessment: Formative & Summative PowerPoint

I loved the comic strip that this PowerPoint opened up with because I feel like students should get partial credit if they attempt a problem just like we should get “credit” for facing the world today. I didn’t realize that “assess” was Latin for the verb “assidere” which means “to sit with”. I do not believe that during assessments, we should sit with the learner especially if we want to see the students’ progress and overall growth on a specific topic. I agree more with Harlen, Gipps, Broadfoot, and Nuttal that an assessment is the “process of gathering, interpreting, recording, and using information about pupil’s response to an educational task” (slide 5). I also agree that formative assessments have the greatest impact because it is something teachers can see right then and there. I believe that I formatively assess my students without even thinking about it because I am constantly looking at their work while they are working individually during all subject areas. We, the teachers, can then fix the misconception or confusion quickly or extend the students as needed. I laughed out loud when I saw the comic on slide 11 because I sometimes feel rushed while teaching because there is so much material to cover before we have our summative assessments. I enjoyed reading the “Garden Analogy” about summative versus formative assessments because this created a great visual in my mind about the two assessments and how they differ. I tell my students that they all learn at different levels and speeds because it is more interesting to have different friends and learn from each other. This allows me to put a strong emphasis on the individual student instead of getting caught up in comparing my students which can easily happen. Through formative and summative assessments I am confident that every student will progress at their own individual pace and can improve to become a stronger learner.

Identifying Reading Disabilities PowerPoint

This PowerPoint helped explain and identify reading disabilities. I did not realize that discrepancy actually meant that “students had a learning disability if there was a significant difference between their measured ability and their achievement” (slide 2). However, I was shocked that this approach did not identify students until third grade or later. My school uses the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach which helps students who struggle with various strategies and probes. I am a visual learner and I think the pyramid that was presented to me when I first started teaching is very helpful in understanding the RTI tiers. I have never heard of functional definitions but it is interesting because it provides additional instruction for those students who have the lowest achieving reading scores. I also like that it judges whether or not students’ reading difficulties interfere with life circumstances. I was shocked at the high percentage of fourth graders who are unable to function on a basic level according to NAEP. However, I do notice several fourth graders who do not possess the basic concepts of comprehension, inferring, drawing conclusions, and retelling when entering fourth grade. I was happy to see the scores decrease as the students become older but was dismayed that the percentage did not change between eighth and twelfth grades. I agree that students differ in reading difficulties because they have different schema. I gained knowledge about some basic principles for programs for readers who are low-achieving. I agree that prevention is better than correction and I will continue to build on what the student knows and foster independence. I believe that all students grow when they have personalized instructions that engage them in learning a new topic and continually assess and monitor their progress.

Module 4 - Videos

Running Records Videos

The Running Records video demonstrated how to record Running Records. These videos would be great for a brand new teacher or someone that has never taken Running Records. I take Running Records daily with my students. I use Running Records to determine a student’s reading level and overall fluency level. However, I do not mark my Running Records the same as the teacher demonstrated on these videos. I feel that a lot of teachers find what works best for them on Running Records and stick with those marks. I use similar markings to what the teacher demonstrated. However, I do not use tick marks (checks) above the correctly pronounced words with my fourth graders because there are more words in our passages and sometimes they read faster where I cannot possibly check above each word they read. I tend to use editing marks on my Running Records because they make sense to me. For example, I use a caret and write the word that a child incorrectly inserts above the caret. Also, I circle the word and draw a curly arrow (similar to the proofreaders’ “delete” editing mark) when a student omits a word. I write s/c when a child self-corrects themselves and I do not count those toward their miscues since they were able to self-correct without any teacher prompting. If a child says a different word than what was written, I put one slash mark through the written word and write the word they said above the text. I think Running Records are helpful but every teacher has to find their own writing marks that will work for his/her teaching style and students.

Analysis with Running Records

I enjoyed how the student knew his reading goals and what he is currently working on. Students should always know what they need to work on, especially older students. I also make sure I do this with my students. All students need to learn how to assess their own fluency and comprehension in an effort to become stronger readers.  I also like to show my students where their miscues occur and re-examine their miscues. Students often do not see their miscues while they’re reading, so it is important to draw attention to their miscues so they can work on monitoring their own comprehension and fluency. I often ask my students, “Did that make sense?” This allows them to stop and think about their miscues and self-correct them instead of me saying the correct word. If they are unaware of the new word, I ask if it looks like another word that they already know or if they can they sound it out. My tutee and I are jotting down difficult words on a sticky note and then analyzing what they mean using context clues or the dictionary. This will help build his vocabulary and overall fluency/comprehension levels while reading. Also, I looked around the www.litdiet.org website and really enjoyed the word work video where the teacher played “Wheel of Fortunate” with new vocabulary. The teacher introduced new words for the word wall and math word wall in a “Wheel of Fortunate” and “Hangman” style where the students took educated guesses to find out the new words. I want to try this out in my classroom because I have a word wall that includes all academic words. This would help my tutee and other students since they could refer back to this word wall throughout the school year.

Module 3 - Article

Formative Assessments: Simply, No Additives Article Reflection
            This article opened up by discussing the reading assessments as a whole and then looked specifically at formative assessments. I agree that reading has to do with “frequent, interactive checks of student understandings, and skills to identify learning needs and to adjust instruction” (p. 534). I feel that I glean a lot of information when conducting an informal assessment during reading workshop. I am able to scaffold learning immediately and help my students whom might be confused on a concept when conducting a formative assessment. My formative assessment can be as simple as a “thumbs down if you are still confused” which helps me close the gaps in my classroom of 31 students. Although I did not know the technical term, I find myself using “feedback loops” where I give my students constant feedback, instructions, and modeling to pull my students into achieving their specific reading goal. I give feedback during individual conferences, small groups, and/or strategy groups. I agree that “Formative assessment needs to occur in a culture that cultivates a learning orientation” (p. 538). I think students will strive to do better when they know specifically what to work on individually. I know that over time and with lots of patience, practice, persistence, and purpose, I can develop into a professional reading teacher who is deeply knowledgeable of all aspects of reading.

Module 3 - PowerPoints

Overview of Assessment PowerPoint
          I agree that assessments should be integrated daily throughout our instructional plans so as we can constantly learn about our students’ weakness/strengths and adjust our teaching accordingly. Assessments give me a chance to reflect on my students’ progress throughout the school year. Students can be moved up or down levels according to their levels of knowledge. I record their progress in my data notebook and frequently conference with my students during reading and writing workshop to update them on their growth. Slide eight reminded me that at the beginning of every school year, teachers receive colored-coded (green – exceeds standards, yellow – meet standards, and red – did not meet standards) “spotlight reports” which are based on the students’ previous CRCT scores. I found it interesting that validity and reliability came up during this slideshow because I just studied these two concepts for ECE 7531 and how they relate to my action research. I believe all assessments should demonstrate validity and reliability because they should fair and encourage further learning. I did not know that “According to No Child Left Behind, ELLs who have been in the U.S. school for at least 10 months are required to be assessed in English reading” (slide 15). I have three ELL students this year and two of them have been in U.S. schools longer than 10 months which means they will take the CRCT with the rest of my students. I think this is unfair because they still do not fully comprehend the English language and have difficulty with lengthy directions. Nevertheless, I will work with all my students so they can perform their personal best on the criterion-referenced test in April.

 

Phonics Evidence and Strategies PowerPoint
          I have to be honest and state that I did not know what slide three said or what it meant. It looked like a foreign language which I guess is what students who do not understand the English language see when they try to read an English book. I agree that phonics is important because one must understand how to decode words since there are numerous different integrations of sounds for each alphabetic letter in the English language. I agree that readers decipher words by using decoding, spelling patterns, analogizing, sight words, and context clues. However, I still have students in fourth grade who struggle with decoding because they do not understand basic phonics instruction. I see several of my students struggling with the itemized difficulties that are listed on slide ten. Every Friday, we have a pre-test for our next week’s spelling words and I am always amazed at some of the ways students spell basic words because they are unaware of phonics. In fact, I still see students write “thay” instead of “they” in their writing pieces. We work on the spelling pattern in whole group every week since most of the students do understand the pattern. Common spelling patterns focus on the six syllable types that were featured on slide 25. In fourth grade, we also focus on prefixes and suffixes with basic root words since that is part of our standards. It is also helps the students break apart more difficult words if they understand and know how to pronounce the affixes correctly. I will continue to work on spelling patterns throughout the week by using our Words Their Way sorts along with reviewing affixes whole group.

Module 3 - Videos

Strengthening Students’ Phonemic Awareness, Grades K - 1
          This video showed a teacher in kindergarten/first grade. The teacher focused on building students’ phonemic awareness by showing sounds and the letters that corresponded with them. She worked in small groups and whole group to focus on phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is vital for learning how to spell and read. I agree that it is difficult to understand the smallest units of speech especially since the English language has a large number of different sounds. Students will build their phonemic awareness as they gain more understanding and control of the sounds and language.

 

Phoneme Segmentation Assessment Video Reflection
          This video demonstrated how the teacher used blocks to break up phonemes in basic words. However, within the first minute, I found something that I would change. The teacher used the blocks facing her. The teacher pointed to the blocks from right to left instead of mirroring what the student should do which would be left to right (the way we read). It was almost like the student was spelling the word backwards because she started with a block to the right then built it to the left. I was excited when the student enunciated the second word “shop” and realized that “sh” made one sound because it is a blend. As the video progresses, the child starts to manipulate the blocks to her liking. She started to move them right to left because it is the way we read but the teacher took the blocks back up to the middle of the table. At times, I felt that they could have use a different manipulative that would have been less distracting. The child had difficulties with shorter words that had more blends like “flew”, “chalk”, and “bolt”. This video reminded me of the Fundations program that is offered at my school for primary grade students. Overall, this video helps teachers distinguish if students have the basic phoneme segmentation.

Module 2 - Reading Inventory Demo Video Reflection

       I enjoyed watching this video because it was useful and informational. I will conduct a reading survey verbally using the Fountas & Pinnell questions as a guide. The teacher at the beginning of the video sounded like she was also asking a couple of questions from this survey. The teacher asked the student to read the word list. I noticed that she said that the student can “skip” any difficult words. I would want my students to try out the words instead of just saying “skip” to words they are able to sound out. I think this word list would be her instructional or frustration level because she had to sound out and think about most of the words. She also skipped two words after attempting the beginning sounds of those words. I did like how she corrected herself on the first word “focus”. I could tell that she was breaking the words into syllables or beginning/ending sounds. I would encourage my tutee to try all of the words on the list so I can gather a word automaticity rate along with levels for frustration, independent reading and instructional reading.